8th October 2016 - Important Current Affairs updates

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National Affairs

• Today (8th October) is 84th Air Force Day.
• • Indian Airforce was officially established on 8 October 1932 as an auxiliary air force of the British Empire and the prefix Royal was added in 1945 in recognition of its services during World War II.
  • Important Details about Indian Air Force
  • Founded    on : 8th October 1932
  • Motto : Touch the Sky with Glory
  • Headquarters : New Delhi
  • Chief of Air Staff : Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha
  • Vice Chief of Air Staff   : Air Marshal BS Dhanoa
  • Indian Airforce is the World's 4th largest Airforce.
  • The Indian Air Force has involved in the following:
  • • World War II
      
    • Sino-Indian War
    • Operation Cactus
    • Operation Vijay
    • Kargil War
    • Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
    • Indo-Pakistani War of 1947
    • Congo Crisis
    • Operation Poomalai
    • Operation Pawan
• To provide free LPG connections to the BPL households, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) in Maharashtra. 
• • The PMUY scheme provides subsidy of ₹1,600 to the women beneficiaries.
  • The move will benefit 91 lakh households in the state over the next three years. 
• The Election Commission today announced that no political party can use government funds and machinery to carry out activities that amount to its advertisement. 
• • This came amid allegations that BSP had put up its symbol at public places during its rule in UP. 
  • Any violation will be treated as a violation of EC's lawful direction, said the EC.
• The Karnataka government has decided to celebrate Tipu Sultan Jayanti across the state on November 10 every year at Ravindra Kalakshetra in Bengaluru. 
• • However, the government has shifted the responsibility of organising the event from the minorities department to the department of Kannada and culture. 
  • At least three died in clashes last year after an outrage by anti-Tipu Sultan activists.
• Maharashtra became 17th state to join the UDAY Scheme. 
• • It will help Maharashtra to reap benefits worth Rs 9,725 crore by way of cheaper funds, transmission losses, energy efficiency and coal reforms during the period of the turnaround. 
  • Under the UDAY Scheme, Maharashtra has committed to take more than 75% of the discom’s non-capex debt of around 6,600 crore rupees in the current year. 
  • UDAY - Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojn
• The Union Ministry of Urban Development has approved projects worth Rs.114 crore under HRIDAY Scheme for improving infrastructure facilities around core heritage sites in five cities. 
• • These five cities are : 
  • • Varnasi (Uttar Pradesh)
    • Amritsar (Punjab)
    • Dwaraka (Gujarat)
    • Puri (Odisha) 
    • Warangal (Telangana)
  • Projects in these districts were selected based on recommendation of inter-Ministerial HRIDAY National Empowered Committee. 
  • HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana
• Maharashtra Government has allocated 40.68 hectare land to Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to build LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) India Project at Dudhala village in Hingoli district. 
• • With this, India will join elite league of countries consisting of US, UK, Italy, Germany and Japan that support on-going research on gravitational waves.
  • Besides, it will be third such laboratory in the world and first outside US. 
  • The existing two LIGO laboratories in US are located in Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford, Washington.

MOUs & Agreements

• Doordarshan and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) have entered into an agreement for transmission of four Gyan Darshan educational channels. 
• • It ran successfully till June 2, 2014, but was shut down by ISRO to facilitate migration from INSAT 3C to GSAT-10. 
  • IGNOU now needs to apply for a fresh license to start the uplinking of its channels for GSAT-10.

Business & Economy

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has notified entities that have been granted a payments bank (PB) licence will need to take specific approval for products they would be offering to customers. 
• • In this regard, RBI has issued separate operating guidelines for payments banks in view to focus on financial inclusion.

General Knowledge

• British biochemist Frederick Sanger remains the only person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry twice. 
• • He received the award in 1958 and 1980 for his work on the structure of proteins and nucleic acids respectively. 
  • Important Note : The Cambridge University Professor, was the fourth person to win a Nobel twice; after Marie Curie, Linus Pauling and John Bardeen.
• Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who was honored with Nobel Peace Prize 2016 yesterday, has  became the 26th Head of State or Government to win a Nobel Prize. 
• • Santos is also the 15th Nobel Laureate in office as Head of Government at the time of the award. 
  • The 65-year-old received the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to bring the country's 52-year-long civil war to an end.

• Renowned Manipuri theatre legend Heisnam Kanhailal (75) passed away. 
• • He was actively been involved in threatre for the last 40 years in different roles of a playwright, director and also an actor.

• Indore's Holkar Stadium is hosting Madhya Pradesh's first ever international Test, featuring India and New Zealand in the series' third and final match. 
• Former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar will be the face of the 2017 New Delhi Marathon, scheduled to be held on February 26, 2017 in the national capital. 
• • The marathon, in its second edition, will feature a 42.2 km full and 21.1 km half marathon, and a 5 km Swacch Bharat Run. Differently-abled athletes will also take part in the marathon.

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